Public Opinions and Weight Action about Diet Nutrition and Physical Activity - Do Americans Accurately Assess Their Weight?, Americans' Attitudes About Overweight, Has America Become A Fast-food Nation?

We find that, contrary to the views of health experts, most Americans are not seriously concerned with obesity, express relatively low support for obesity-targeted policies, and still view obesity as resulting from individual failure rather than environmental or genetic sources.—J. Eric Oliver and Taeku Lee, Public Opinions and the Politics of America's Obesity Epidemic (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 2002)

To date, the United States is losing the battle against overweight and obesity. More Americans than ever before are overweight and obese, and by their own admission, more people are gaining weight than losing it. Gallup Poll data collected in July 2003 revealed that more than one-third of Americans said they had gained "a little" weight, and 9 percent admitted they had gained "a lot." Although Americans spent in excess of $40 billion on weight-loss products and programs during 2003, just 7 percent of the survey respondents said they had lost "a lot" of weight, and 11 percent said they had lost "a little" weight. While the proportion of persons who gained weight was essentially unchanged from the previous year, fewer reported weight loss in 2003 (18 percent) than in 2002 (21 percent). (See Table 11.1.)

Weight gain occurred throughout the United States with few differences among persons of various demographic groups. Comparable percentages of men (43 percent) and women (46 percent) reported gaining weight; however, older adults (age sixty-five and older) were less likely to report gaining weight (36 percent) than were persons aged eighteen to twenty-nine (42 percent) and adults aged thirty to sixty-four (47 percent). (See Table 11.2.)

Survey respondents with a high school education or less were somewhat more likely to report weight gain (50 percent) than were those who had obtained advanced education. Similarly, persons with less than $20,000 a year in household income were slightly more likely to admit they had gained weight than persons who earned $75,000 a year or more. However, the difference—just 5 percent—was TABLE 11.1
Public opinion poll on weight loss or gain over the last five years, 2002–03
THINKING ABOUT HOW YOUR WEIGHT HAS CHANGED OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS, WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE—[ ROTATED: GAINED A LOT OF WEIGHT, GAINED A LITTLE WEIGHT, STAYED THE SAME, LOST A LITTLE WEIGHT, (OR) LOST A LOT OF WEIGHT]?

	Gained a lot	Gained a little	Stayed the same	Lost a little	Lost a lot	No opinion
2003 Jul 7–9	9%	35	38	11	7	*
2002 Jul 9–11	10%	34	35	13	8	*
SOURCE: "Thinking about How Your Weight Has Changed over the Past Five Years, Would You Say You Have—ROTATED: Gained a Lot of Weight, Gained a Little Weight, Stayed the Same, Lost a Little Weight, or Lost a Lot of Weight?" in "Personal Weight Situation," The Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing, The Gallup Organization, Washington, DC, 2003. Copyright © 2003 by The Gallup Organization. Reproduced by permission of The Gallup Organization. [Online] http://www.gallup.com/content/default.asp?ci=7264#articleTOP [accessed February 20, 2004]

small. (See Table 11.2.) In "More Americans Gaining Than Losing Weight" (Poll Analyses, Gallup Organization, August 21, 2003), David Moore asserted that the Gallup data reinforced the conclusion that "gaining weight occurs at roughly similar rates among most groups of Americans."

Unfortunately, persons most in need of weight loss—those who are already overweight—were more likely than those who reported normal ("about right") weight to have gained weight during the five years preceding the poll. Table 11.3 reveals that people who described their diet as "very healthy" were much less likely to report gaining weight (33 percent) than respondents who said their diet was "some-what healthy" (47 percent) or "not healthy" (50 percent).

Interestingly, self-reported health status was not directly linked to weight gain. Forty percent of respondents who rated their health as "excellent," 47 percent of those who termed their health "good," and 45 percent of TABLE 11.2
Public opinion poll on weight loss or gain over the last five years, by selected characteristics, July 2003
THINKING ABOUT HOW YOUR WEIGHT HAS CHANGED OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS, WOULD YOU SAY YOU HAVE…

	Gained weight %	Stayed the same %	Lost weight %
Overall	44	38	18
Gender
Male	43	40	17
Female	46	35	19
Age
18–29	42	36	22
30–49	47	38	15
50–64	47	37	16
65+	36	40	24
Age by gender
Male 18–49	43	41	16
Male 50+	42	40	18
Female 18–49	47	34	19
Female 50+	43	37	20
Education
High school or less	50	33	17
Some college	40	40	20
College graduate	40	43	17
Postgraduate	41	42	16
Income
<$20K	47	28	25
$20K–<$30K	45	35	20
$30K–<$50K	45	42	13
$50K–<$75K	44	37	18
$75K+	42	39	19
SOURCE: David W. Moore, "Thinking about How Your Weight Has Changed over the Past Five Years, Would You Say You Have…," in "More Americans Gaining Than Losing Weight," Poll Analyses, The Gallup Organization, Washington, DC, August 21, 2003. Copyright © 2003 by The Gallup Organization. Reproduced by permission of The Gallup Organization. [Online] http://www.gallup.com/content/default.asp?ci=9097 [accessed February 20, 2004]

those who rated their health as "fair" or "poor" said that they gained weight. (See Table 11.3.)